Wednesday, November 4, 2009

"Completely agree with you here. Win7 is a golden opportunity to see that Windows isn't impressive when placed against a mature distro like Mint or openSUSE. I went to a Win7 party, but the host agreed to install copies of Win7, Fedora, openSUSE, and OSX, and then compare them.

"And yes, they were more impressed by how fast and how many programs that were ready to run after spending 15-22 minutes installing Mint and openSUSE. They even liked KDE better than Win7's UI. However, because it didn't run Photoshop -- which only one person used -- they were willing to pay the $320 to stick with Windows.

"Quite telling."

Thanks for the comment, Zaine.

I want to address the one person you mentioned who required Photoshop. Photoshop is certainly an amazing program. One reason (but not the only one) why some folks need PhotoShop is due to CMYK color separation when creating images for print (magazines, newspapers, etc.). Well, the majority of us don't need to use CMYK at the commercial level. Which is why most of us don't plop down $600.00 plus for the commercial version of Photoshop. Most Windows users will purchase Photoshop Elements (or similar) for about $100.00.

Now, I just wanted to make two points to first time readers of this blog and others exploring Linux.

1.) If you really want to run Photoshop, all you need do is purchase and install Crossover or install Wine for free. I've blogged about running Photoshop on Linux before. It works seamlessly and runs quite well.

2.) If you don't need CMYK, The Gimp does everything Photoshop Elements and other non-commercial graphics apps do. And Gimp is FREE! I use The Gimp when creating all my cartoon features with no problems whatsoever. Like the above drawing (taken with a digital camera), I draw my stuff with good old fashioned pen to paper, scan, and then do all my digital editing in Gimp. I don't need CMYK at the moment. If/when I do, I'll use the option as described above.

So, if you really need PhotoShop, you can use it in Linux. I you don't need Photoshop, you can run Gimp for free! It works just like Photoshop and is every bit as powerful.

4 comments:

Anonymous
said...

And don't forget... No product activation!I was on my way from New York to Germany. When I arrived in my room, Vista informed me my PC needed activation and would only work for the next day (can't remember the exact message). I don't know what triggered this message, as everything worked fine, and Windows was activated months before. Because I was on a business trip for the next 2 weeks, I could not get my laptop working until I arrived back home. Luckily we were able to transfer my importation documents that evening. What a mess!Because of this, I WILL NEVER OWN ANOTHER MS PRODUCT!

There is also one other reason not to use gimp. Printing! there is no good way to get photoquality pictures out of Gimp or linux in general. Don't get me wrong I use linux daily. But for printing and scanning I have to start my windows box. This is not entirely Linux fault it's also fault of the device manufactures also. And for those who say that there is linux compatible equipment out there, that's no use for me because I'm happy with my hardware and don't wan't to pay hundreds of euros to buy new hardware just to abandon fine working machinery.

Thanks for quoting my comment! I should have clarified that the "one person" used Photoshop on his Mac machine! I don't buy the "Photoshop excuse" either unless that person is either a graphics professional or a trade photographer. Those are the only people who can justify its cost, since it is not a hobbyist application.

During that Win7 Party night, most of the Windows users' frustration centered around the start menu and control panel/action center. Just as Vista obscured and renamed many feature customizations, Win7 has taken to simply hiding them under many layers of confusing and deadend dialogs.

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